How to disassemble, inspect and replace stock, sticking or noisy LS lifters

I’ve had some people ask for my address to send along something, so I thought I’d leave my address here incase you’d like to! I appreciate you guys.
Barry Lambert
P.O. Box 1008
Lewisporte, NL, Canada
A0G 3A0
this is an in-depth video on how to disassemble and inspect, clean then reassemble your stock LS lifters and restore them to factory condition, so they'll give you years of good service without noises/broken parts. I also show some tips to make disassembly a lot easier.

[@landisrinehart1994]

I’ve been fighting my lifters for 3 days and i thank you for making a video that actually goes into detail, going to try these steps tomorrow

[@StationroadRatrods]

You got it 🙂 good luck, I hope it works out for ya

[@rickyscz28]

Thank you so much for this video!! Awesome job!!

[@StationroadRatrods]

Anytime! If there’s anything you’d like to see, or explained better just ask away, I’m actually right in the middle of building a destroked 6 litre right now and I’m going through every step, extensively.

[@globeeartheulogy9126]

Awesome video ❤!! And I knew that accent of yours was from the rock,…. 😊 a fellow Canadian

[@StationroadRatrods]

Thank you 🙂

[@quicksilver462]

I have found that SIMPLE GREEN works very fast and efficient at dissolving the varnish on parts inside an engine. I use it undiluted, only take seconds for light varnish cleaning like on lifters and such, rinse with clean water, blow off with air nozzle, then assemble with fresh oil. I did my lifters one at a time so as not to mix up the parts, even though there was no visible or measurable wear. My engine is a series II 3800 w/ 200k miles.

[@StationroadRatrods]

Sweet!! Definitely gonna try that next time. I don’t mind mixing up the parts, I’ve never had any issues but I can see why people would want to put them back as they came apart.

[@MrScotts4050]

Great video!! Thanks for taking the time to do that for us all. I have a brand new set of GM LS lifters and I was wondering if I should be able to push the plunger down at all? I thought there would be a little bit of give but there isn't.

[@StationroadRatrods]

I appreciate it! I think the stiffer a lifter is the better, normally I can’t push them down by hand if the valves in them are good. When you tighten down the pushrods it’ll preload the lifters

[@TomTom-up1kz]

Very good job thanks for you 👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏⚘❤⚘❤⚘❤⚘❤⚘

[@StationroadRatrods]

You got it, hope it helps 🙂

[@b.c4066]

Plastics factory workers use brass needle nosed pliers for trimming parts, you should get a set. Grabbing those plungers with carbon steel pliers is a good way to scratch the machined plunger surface and cause an internal leak. You'd probably never notice it with stock cams, but with an aggressive lobe design it could cause excess bleed down and noise, loss of performance. And the bad thing is you'd probably not notice it, but you'd lose 2-5 hp etc. Keep in mind the difference between a good engine and a GREAT ENGINE is meticulous attention to every detail when assembling it. 2hp here, 1hp there, 5 here it all adds up, and that is how the pros do it. Just my $.02, ymmv

[@StationroadRatrods]

I appreciate it dude!! I’ll be searching up a set today, I didn’t know they existed! Would the brass wear or break over time due to being a softer metal?

[@b.c4066]

@@StationroadRatrods I have had a set a worker gave me 5 years ago when I was a maintenance tech at a plastics factory. I only use them for stuff I don't want to scratch up. Not as tough as steel, but for a 25-30 $ pair of needle nosed pliers it's not a big deal buying a set every 5 years if you use them often.

[@StationroadRatrods]

That’s awesome, thanks a bunch

[@tuiske84]

Thanks for this awesome video. Do you bleed the lifters before intallation? I have one "soft" LS7 lifter on my gen-II LT4 engine. When I disassembled my engine all lifters worked fine, but now when I'm putting all back together I found out that one of the lifters is soft and I can push it down by fingers. I was thinking that maybe just oil came out from that one?

[@StationroadRatrods]

Thanks for watching! The LT and LS lifters are the same so that’s really neat. If you have a soft lifter it’s very possible the little spring and ball may be off it’s seat and letting oil bypass inside the lifter, and won’t fully build pressure. I’d check there first. It’s easy for it to slip to one side when you’re pressing them together

[@liljohn4777]

The puck/disc piece, is it just a flat machinsed disc or is a stamped disc with raised circle? Mine has a stamp on it and im not sure why

[@StationroadRatrods]

It looks like just a flat piece of metal

[@MauricioHernandez-st8su]

Hi. Good job! I have a question ls lifters ando vortec l31 lifters it's they same lifters?? Thanks.

[@StationroadRatrods]

I can’t say for sure actually, but I’ve heard they’re the same as the roller SBC lifters

[@jazzcat5950]

Hi. Way cool thanks!! How do you know that they are not worn? I had a tech tell me that a little tick I have is a lifter worn maybe a thousandth of an inch. He said replace them all if gets worse so is that too small of an amount to measure or see?

[@StationroadRatrods]

You got it 🙂 You could measure the lifter diameter on top and bottom and compare it to spec. I’ve never actually done that, usually lifters tick because they leak down or are stuck, but that’s a possibility

[@jazzcat5950]

@@StationroadRatrods Thanks!

[@StationroadRatrods]

You’re welcome, hope it works out for ya

[@timweb1510]

I need to replace my lifters on a lm7, what replacements do you recommend? I’m trying a turbo sloppy style build. A few mentioned ls7 replacement lifters but isn’t the cup height different on those from stockers? Trying to keep factory pushrod length. Just swapped stock cam for sloppy stage 2 and pac springs

[@StationroadRatrods]

Hey man, people are always gonna say “LS7” lifters because they heard it from someone who heard it from someone else hahaa. All gen 4 lifters have the same style, they’re full round on the bottom where the wheel is which is much stronger. I would suggest buying them from GM, for a 07-13 truck. That’s what I used and they work great. I refreshed my old lifters instead of buying new, I just took them apart and got the valves unstuck and put new oil in and put them back together and they work great with no noise. My reason for doing that is many people have had problems with various company’s lifters breaking and ruining cams so that kinda scared me away, and the lifters I had were factory so I knew they were built right.

[@timweb1510]

@@StationroadRatrods thank you very much for detailed reply, I’m a new sub. My engine is a gen 3 5.3. At the top of my list was the acdeldo or Delphi(but Delphi is listed as ls7). On my used engine the cam had terrible wear marks and worn in ridges from the factory lifters so I believe they are toast and one turned in the tray I believe. I’ve put this off for months because I didn’t know what to do. Thanks

[@StationroadRatrods]

Ohh yeah they’re definitely messed up. Sealed power makes good lifters too, HT-2148 is the part number for those. As for lifter buckets I would only use GM ones too, their alignment is critical so the lifter doesn’t scuff on the cam and wear it out. Thanks for checking out the channel dude, good luck with your engine and if you need anything just ask away

[@timweb1510]

@@StationroadRatrods appreciate the time and response, bless you 👍🏻

[@StationroadRatrods]

Anytime at all man 🤘

[@DuckOff691]

Why do ppl say to never mix them up? Do they need to be reinstalled in the exact spot and in the same orientation they were taken?

[@StationroadRatrods]

People say that the parts wear to the specific bore that the lifter is in, and it can cause issues if you mix them up. I don’t really pay attention to that, I’ve never had any issues with noises or oil pressure and I think that if parts are worn you should replace them anyway